1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments described herein generally relate to storing and retrieving data, particularly but not exclusively, data about networked office equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many modern day electronic devices, such as printers, copiers, scanners, and multi-function devices (MFDs) have the ability to generate device usage and other data. Often, such devices are provided with network connections so that the data can be periodically transmitted to a central database for subsequent analysis. As the number of devices, as well as the number of device parameters to which the data pertains, can be large, the amount of data collected over time can be vast.
Although many conventional systems in widespread use today, such as relational database management systems, have the ability to store vast amounts of data collected over time (i.e. time-varying data), the rules governing transactions in relational databases offer very little built-in support to adequately analyze it. In other words, queries for historical data are difficult in a relational database. To resolve this issue, separate analytical structures are often used. Thus, the data can be stored in a relational database, whereas the analysis is performed by a tightly coupled analytical counterpart. However, existing implementations, particularly those for enterprise printing systems, make use of vendor-specific and/or complex queries that consume computer resources to a degree that significantly reduces system performance.
It is therefore desirable to provide improved systems and methods for management and analysis of data.